Lore/Story Angels And Demons: Chapter 17

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Chapter 17: Risen From the Dead
~Katherine~

"Something feels wrong." Nicolas says. We stand at the end of the broken stairway, where there is a doorway into a small crypt. Nothing is there. We walk in, but nothing moves. We look around, and see every grave open, revealing rotting corpses. I cover my nose: the stench finally reached us.

The graves all seemed to be ripped open. Each gravestone have names on it. We check all of them, but do not find Sayleros' brother.

Luke frowns. "Wait, I'll go check." He goes out of the chamber and checks on the walls, looking for secret entrances.

A strange breeze flow through the room. I realise then, this room is a sealed room. There is not supposed to be a breeze. Lucius senses this: he shouts, "Hey!" And starts to bolt towards back to the crypt, to me and Nicolas.

A wall suddenly rise from the ground, covering the doorway, locking me and Nicolas inside the crypt. Luke shouts in frustration from outside. I realise that the wall is made with human bones.

All the air around me seems to be getting sucked behind, and wind toss my hair backwards. Looking back, we see a new grave, a bigger one, at the end of the crypt. It was not there before.

I draw my dagger, and Nicolas his spear.

There is a cracking sound. Nicolas suddenly looks up at the ceiling. "Don't you feel something?" He asks, his voice filled with doubt. I feel it too: a presence radiating great power and evil. It feels absolutely ancient.

From the new grave, a smoke-like substance come out. The stone of the grave shifts, then falls next to the grave. The substance is pitch black, and I know that it is shadow in its pure form.

The shadow solidifies into what looks like a bony hand. It grabs the edge of the grave, and pulls up its body. A thin, corpse-like man stands up inside his grave. I could see that he is a villager, but nothing else, for his skin is shrivelled up and is dark in colour.

The villager looks at us with hollow eyes. The moment his gaze is upon me, my mind goes blank.


"Go, Katymbrel." A woman's voice echo in my mind. I blink, and find myself a younger girl, in front of my mother. Her face covered with dirt and ash, she crouches in front of me. Tears flow out from her eyes.

We are in middle of a burning town. Around me, warriors fight demons. The demons carry torches that they thrown into the houses. The warriors of Fruma kill the demons, but the sheer amount of them weaken them. One by one, the soldiers start to fall.

"You must run. Run into the Kurubiq woods, and escape this wretched province. Promise me."

Tears roll out of my eyes. I don't say anything. "Please." My mother say to me desperately.

"Lythia!" A man calls to my mother. My father, a Fruman captain.

Whatever he was going to say next, it is cut off when a great cheer comes from the demons. The evil creatures make way for a large monster, engulfed in fire. A magma spirit.

The monster gives a roar, and fire erupt all around. It burns many of the Fruma soldiers.

The monster comes to in front of my father. He comes to stand between me and my mother, and the Fire Demon. "You're rampage ends here, Demon!" My father shouts. His spear glow with magical energy.

The magma spirit laughs, then sweep his claws at my father. He jumps back, then stab at the demon with his spear. It impales the demon in his chest.

The demon grins, however, and grab my father at his head. The demon throw him to the side, and an audible crack could be heard as his neck breaks.

"NO!" My mother shouts. She stands up, trembling.

"Katymbrel. You must leave, now." With that, my mother leap at the fire demon. As an elf, she was powerful, but the Demon punch her in the stomach, and send her to the ground. Taking my father's spear out of his chest, the Demon grabs my mother by the neck and impale the spear through my mother's chest.

I scream. I don't care about the Demon noticing me. I just scream.


The scene changes. I'm floating in an endless shadow. Suddenly, a wave of feelings roll over me; every fear, pain and grief I have felt in my life, thirty years.

My body erupts into pain as I feel every healed scars open. Where I was stabbed in the thigh by a demon in Kurubiq, where I was bitten by a hellhound. Where I was cut in the fight with Nico, and in the Decrepit Sewers.

I shut my eyes hard, but tears still roll down my cheek. I feel like my head is splitting in half. I try to scream, but no sound come out, as I choke in my own blood.

I hear a voice laughing, from far away. Suddenly, I feel presences all around me.

I open my eyes despite the pain in my head. At first I don't see anything, anyone, but soon shapes start to materialise.

Every souls I have ever seen die in front of my eyes appear. Men, women, children, Demons, monsters. Their eyes are hollow like the man from the crypt, and their faces are blank.

You killed us. Voices echo in my head. You let us die.

Free us. Help us. Find us. Come to us.

I can't bear it. I curl into a ball, and try to shut the voices away. But they stay, whispering in my head.

Free us free us free us help us help us help us...

Let me die. I think. I would gladly join you if it ends this pain. Please.

FREE US! HELP US!

Please!


---

~Nicolas~

The moment the shadow man makes eye contact with Katherine, she screams and fall to her knees and crutching her head.

"Katherine!" I call, and shake her softly. I can feel her skin growing cold, and she is trembling extremely hard. Tears roll down from her eyes. Blood drop from her nose.

"Katherine! Kass!" I call again, but she stays unconscious.

I feel the ghost man's stare bore into me. I try to resist it, but something forces my head to slowly rise. And I look into his eyes.

I gasp, and fall back, releasing Katherine. A feeling of fear I have never experienced attack my head. Still I cannot look away from the man's soul-less gaze.

Pain erupt all over my body. It feels like all my healing scars are opening. I grit my teeth, then swear as I accidentally bite my tongue and blood wet my mouth. Every feeling of fear I felt- when I woke up, when I fought amongst Ragni soldiers, inside the Decrepit Sewers- rush through me. No wonder Katherine is in this state: thirty one years of hard life in Fruma was assaulting her right now.

I had to help her. Pain is only a message. I tell myself. You can ignore messages.

I slowly rise to my feet. My body buckles in protest as new pain shoot up my spine. But still I stand. And I take one step forward, towards the soul-less man.

Then, all around me, figures rise from the ground. Their forms are made by a smoke-like substance. Ghosts.

I recognise these ghosts as Ragni soldiers, those I have seen fall in the Ragni Outskirts.

You let us die. You could have saved us. Voices whisper in my mind. I shake my head. This isn't real.

Free us. Help us. Come to us. The ghosts whisper.

I look at the man, and only at the man. I speak to the ghosts, "You laid your lives to a cause, and that was what you took your oaths for. You died not in vain."

The figures of the ghosts flicker. The man takes a step back.

I grin, despite the pain, the fear, the ghosts. I grab my spear I have dropped onto the ground and throw it at the man. It impales him straight through the chest.

The man's head jolts upwards, his mouth open in a silent scream. Shadow essence rise from the man's mouth, then escapes into the crypt walls. The man staggers, then slowly crumble onto the ground in form of grey ash.

At the same time, the pain and the fear leave me. The ghosts also fade away. I stagger for a moment, then rush at Katherine.

"Katherine." I shake her. Her eyes are open, but they are empty. Horror strikes me. "Kass!" I shout, shaking her harder. Her hand feels unnaturally cold in mine.

The bone wall that cover the entrance to the crypt slowly crumbles behind us. Luke and the Priest rush inside, Luke with his wand, the Priest with his long sword. They freeze when they see me over Katherine's unmoving body.

I look up at the two of them and open my mouth. Luke reacts faster than the Priest: he crouches next to Katherine and touch her forehead, then her wrist.

"She's alive." Luke says, and I sigh in relief. But Luke looks at me with a horrified expression. "But her brain has stopped working."

"How..." I stammer. "Can you do anything?"

"I will try. It is dangerous, though." Luke lays his hand again on Katherine's forehead. The mage then starts to chant in a mysterious tongue. His palm starts to glow.

The Priest gasps in surprise. "You can perform Feldür Magic?"

Luke nods. "In that case." The Priest says. "I shall assist you."

He moves next to me. "Move, boy." He says to me. When I do, the Priest crouches next to Katherine and starts to talk in the same language as Luke. I look helplessly as symbols start to appear in the air on top of Katherine's face. When seven symbols all line up in a vertical line straight over Katherine's forehead, Luke and the Priest stop chanting. They seem to be tired, very tired. I kneel next to them.

Luke then shouts, "Narmô Ewynsia!"

The symbols all glow in purple light, then drop onto Katherine's forehead, and sinks into her head. For a second, nothing happens. Then Katherine starts to thrash around, her arms and legs flinging around.

"Hold her down!" The Priest shouts. We hold her arms and legs down, even though I got hit in the face with Katherine's fist. Her thrashing slows gradually. Then she goes still once again.

"Did it work?" I ask doubtfully at Luke and the Priest. Luke mutters, "I don't know."

Suddenly, Katherine's eyes flash open. She gasps, and colour return to her face. She sits up, then looks around wildly. She finally spots us three, and recognition cross her face. We sigh in relief.

Then Katherine starts crying. Luke frowns, asking, "What's wrong, Katherine?"

I move in front of the elf. I touch her shoulder, which is shaking. Katherine slowly look up at me with wide eyes, full of tears. "Is... is the man gone?" She asks.

I nod. "It's gone. It's fine, Kass."

Katherine look at me with such a pained expression, it hurt me just to look at her. "I saw my parents die in front of me." She whispers. "The pain..."

I shush her. "I know, it was just a vision." I tell her, but she shakes her head.

"You don't understand. The ghosts..." She trembles and looks down. "Hundreds of them, all telling me the same thing. I could have saved them. I had let them die. And it's true." She looks back at me. "I could've saved them."

"No, Katherine." I say, but Katherine starts crying again. I grab her hands, and she looks up at me again.

"There was nothing else you could have done. You did the best you could."

Her crying gets louder, but her hands squeeze back. The room is quiet except for Katherine's crying as we sit around her broken form.


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